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Tortuga
World: Tortuga *'Location:' Subsector Tyranus *'Type:' Independant Frontier World *'Tithe:' Nix Tortuga is beyond the rule of the Imperium. *'Population:' 80 million 000 000 approx *'Government:' None. Tortuga is an anarchic world with no unified government of any kind. Loose feudalism fills this void, with organisations such as gangs & militias ruling territories by force. But such control is often tenuous at best, and different territories can have vastly different rules - if any. Description Tortuga has nestled in the shadow of The Grave since the Age of Strife, and this warpstorm dominates the planet's sky. While it has been colonised since the Dark Age of Technology it is not thought to have been fully developed when The Grave coalesced, swallowing half of the Subsector and leaving Tortuga on its peripheries. Whatever civilisation there was on Tortuga collapsed as warp phenomena erupted in the wake of The Grave's creation, and Tortuga was left a ruined world of the dead & forgotten. The world does not appear on records again until the Belisarian Reclamation Crusade of M37, when it was found by the Crusade Fleet as a base for a number of heretical bands & cults. Heavily bombarded from orbit, Tortuga was rendered uninhabitable for decades and the Crusade moved on. Years later as the kinetic winter dissipated, Tortuga began playing host to those who wished to avoid the Imperium and other authorities. Fugitives, pirates, Xenos, and more used Tortuga as a regional haven, and a few enterprising factions began building ports, docks, and other facilities to turn a profit from these independant voidfarers. In the centuries since Tortuga has grown into a notorious hotbed of criminals and non-Imperials with a large and constany influx & outflow of visitors, immigrants, and emigrants. While the population is generally content to run their bars, farm their fields, and sell their wares, there are large factions of violent gangs that hold significant influence on Tortuga, along with associated drugs trades and violence. While there are more altruistic militias and vigilantes around, everyone on Tortuga is very much responsible for their own safety resulting in a heavily armed populace. Thus Tortuga is a dangerous place where a few wrong words can have a man staring down the barrel of a gun. Despite this Tortuga is immensely popular due to the lack of taxes, rules, and Imperial presence. Pirates and smugglers buy & sell their goods & loot here, ranging from food to slaves, while Chartists and Rogue Traders both legitimate and otherwise make port to trade goods for better prices. The planet's proximity to The Grave is not without its risks however, and while Chaos worship is shunned across the system cults of heresy abound in Tortuga's darkest places and Chaos Reavers can lurk in the system's outer reaches, in wait for suitable prey. *'Technology:' - Mixed With no regulations, heavy trade, and frequent alien visitors, Tortuga is home to a vast range of technology. More uniquely, it is also home to some who craft & utilise technology empowered by the dark gods. *'Military:' As a collection of gangs, crews, and rabble, Tortuga has no real unified military. What it lacks in unity & heavier war machines is made up for in numbers, tenacity, and resourcefulness as almost every inhabitant would be a capable insurgency fighter. A few of the more organised regions can also summon what could be called 'proper' military forces but these are relarively few. Meanwhile in the void the sheer number of vessels and docks in the system provide adequate defence against all but the most powerful of of hostile vessels & fleets. Blockading the system is also dangerous due to its proximity to The Grave. Finally Tortuga is simply of too little value for most factions to commit what would be required to seize it, and destroying it for the sake of getting rid of pirates is pointless as they will simply scatter elsewhere. *'Strategic Importance:' Minima Tortuga has no particular abundance in natural resources, nor does it house any critical industries in great amounts. However it is a great nexus of independants and information, and the Logis Strategos & Inquisition are known to have agents here that gather information on an ongoing basis. *'Loyalty:' 75% 20% <5% While the vast majority of Tortuga is quite fiercely independant and free-thinking, there is a significant pro-Imperial minority. However these are mostly pro-Imperial in a strategic sense rather than for the sake of zealotry. While almost every human world will have a scant few fools toying with worship of the ruinous powers, Tortuga's proximity to The Grave means it has a particularly significant Cult problem. Notable Locations Tortuga is a relatively barren, dusty world - a little hotter than typical temperate worlds - and most of its landmass is tough rocky deadlands and dry dustbowls. Around the coastal regions however Tortuga is quite lush, with climates ranging from chilly bays to tropical peninsulas. It is in these places that most of Tortuga's population resides, in clustered port cities and towns with plenty of landing space around them for shuttles & landers. These cities and towns vary immensely, containing all kinds of architecture from well-built towers to ramshackle huts, from carved stone bars to corrugated metal cantinas. The layout varies too, with some parts serving as vast open market squares while dense, narrow allets & slums can be found elsewhere. *'Tortugos' - The first known modern port city and unnofficial capital of Tortuga, located on the east coast of the continent of Centra and with a population that fluctuates somewhere between 5 and 10 million. This large city is located in the tropics, and is a warm humid city located right on the seafront and periodically targeted by large tropical monsoons. Tortugos is a broad city with few tall buildings, and is filled with a vast range of lawless establishments ranging from fancy banquet halls for the wealthy to dank taverns, drug dens, and deathmatch pits for the poor. Absolutely swarming with trade, Tortugos truly is a city that never sleeps and is filled with criminal gangs, mobsters, protective proprieters, and potentially dangerous voidsmen from all walks of void-life including murderous pirates. *'Maratoga' - Located nearer the equator on the west coast of the continent of Estro, this is a dry sunbaked city of a few million and the second most populatr spot for visitors to touch down. Maratoga's main draw ofer Tortugos is the city's abundance of fuel & minerals to trade, and as a place for daring pioneers to jump ship. It is more open and less densely packed than Tortugos and this makes it harder for the seedier criminal gangs to do business and escape consequences levelled by the city's large number of vigilante posses, though there are still countless violent bars and other base forms of entertainment to be found alongside vast ore & promethium warehouses and shuttle ports. *'Estro Wildlands' - The vast continent of Estro is dominated by mountain ranges, plains, and deserts, and aside from sparse settlements & riverside/coastal towns is completely unexploited. Freelander prospectors & oil drillers foray into the vast wilderness & wildlands, along with farmers and other settlers that want to carve a life of their own away from the oppression of the Imperium or the corruption & criminality of the Tortugan cities. While it is a land of untouched riches, Estro is also dangerous. Wild beasts and sparse provisions are a constant thread, along with the lack of available medicae facilities & supplies. Only hardy & robust vehicles can traverse this land, but the hazardous terrain and lack of river crossings still makes the goin tough. Other humans can present the greatest danger, as roving gangs of bandits & thieves roam Estro to prey on vulnerable prospecters & settlers. Even worse though are the primitive, chaos-worshipping natives of Estro, the descendents of survivors of the Crusade bombardment. These murderous savages know the land better than anyone and daub themselves in dust & camouflage, and have quickly learned how to use scavened weaponts though are primarily armed in a primitive manner. *'Kingdom of Civitas' - This is an independant constitutional monarchy located on the western coast of Centra, with a population of around 12 million. Formed centuries ago by the hand of a warlord whose charisma and might saw an army of gangs and fighters come to his command, with which he forged an independant kingdom of his own. A substantial nation with an organised government and system of laws, Civitas guards its borders from outsiders and has its own respectable agri, mining, and manufacturing industries. It is a significant exporters of goods that are much desired by Tortuga's more anarchic realms, and Civitas arguably commands the most powerful unified ground army on the planet, though its common citizens are significantly less streetwise & tough than their anarchic counterparts. Civitas itself has no loyalties to the Imperium or any other faction, and are loyal only to themselves, their crown, and their own wellbeing. *'Dargoshan Wilds' - The small continent of Dargosh lies nly a hundred miles across the ocean from Tortugos, and is an undeveliped tripical rainforest riddled with predators and other dangerous creatures. Professional hunters and adventurous and/or foolish visitors travel to Dargosh for expensive skins & furs, meats, and trophies, but not all return. Some of the beasts in this unending forest are nightmarish in their ferocity, including macro-drakes, carnosaurs, chameleonic vipers, hooktoothed carnictis, giant insectoids, and more. The ancient forest is also said to hold secrets of the past, in lost ruins and tainted shrines, but such accounts are rare and long-term deep forest expeditions are incredibly dangerous. A rare few of the already large beasts can sometimes grow even larger, warpin & expanding into behemoths through what is thought to be unnatural influence from the neaby Grave. Category:Planet Category:Independent World Category:Subsector Tyranus Category:Trade Hub Category:Pirates